Re-purposing survey data sources for teaching and learning Louise Corti

1. Re-purposing survey data sources for teaching and learning Louise Corti Economic and Social Data Service Head Qualidata, and Outreach & Training, UKDA IASSIST 26-29 May 2003

2. Overview of talk • funding initiative for ‘re-purposing’ digital content: Exchange for Learning Programme (X4L) • rationale and objectives of our X4L project: Exploiting Survey Data Sources in the Classroom • anticipated national infrastructure for preserving/accessing teaching and learning (T&L) materials • metadata standards for T&L materials • most effective ways of collaborating...

3. Exchange for Learning (X4L) Programme • funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) with support from other T&L bodies • motivated by the need to make the most of the considerable investment in a range of digital content which has high potential value for use in T&L • explore ways of re-purposing existing and forthcoming JISC funded content + other content (where IPR can be negotiated) • contribute to development of mechanisms and supporting services to allow the submission and sharing of content

4. Aims and Challenges • encourage HE/FE institutions to actively take a role in defining the kinds of content that would best fit their learning aims • encourage national agencies and support services to work to provide the tools and infrastructure to allow this "exchange of learning" to take place • challenge is to demonstrate how existing content can be re-used to support learning • pedagogical outcomes at the heart of the programme - focus on learning activities and outcomes • explore sustainability and widespread adoption of e- learning materials - by unlocking the potential of complementary areas of work

5. Strand A - content • assemble "chunks" of content which can be identified as learning objects to create new learning materials • make more direct connections between available resources and the 16+ curriculum and to create learning pathways • document the processes used to re-purpose learning materials and to provide case studies and exemplars • test the usability of materials within the context of an institutional environment/portal or within a local VLE • submit these learning materials for sharing to suitable learning materials repository • tag/catalogue the ‘learning objects’ using appropriate metadata • to trial and evaluate their use within the community

6. Strand B: Tools and "Service" Architecture • development of tools and management of records and processes leading to the creation of an architecture to support the programme • development of tools based upon appropriate standards and specifications to facilitate the creation of learning pathways and the assembly of learning objects and appropriate metadata • create a development bay for learning objects for depositing/archiving materials with a view to longer-term use within a service environment

7. Application restrictions • proposals invited both from single institutions and consortia • partnerships actively encouraged with owners or suppliers of relevant content • JISC-funded services invited in partnership with colleges and universities • FE colleges high on the agenda • consider projects 1-3 years duration; budgets ranging from £10,000 to £300,000

8. Immediate Problem • not a widely established history of JISC service providers working closely with FE institutions • some instances - EDINA/MIMAS with NLN • UK Data Archive • few active links with FE (16-18) • no dedicated resources/staff expertise to support this community explicitly • occasional seminars run largely about resource discovery and data potential • hence many ‘consortia’ formed overnight • no time to ‘get to know each other’ well enough

9. More problems • Project activity should not duplicate the effort that has gone in to previous JISC initiatives: • DNER Learning and Teaching Programme • Not finished at start of programme, so many projects not completed • Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) • TLTP - a multi million £ exercise in 1990s with little spin off or use of the resulting ideas/tools

10. UK Data Archive Project • UKDA has rich stock of data sources that we would like to encourage the use of in T&L • formed a consortia … • University of Essex Government Department • local FE college Social Science department • project focus on teaching politics at undergraduate and A’ level (16-18 academic qualification) levels Exploiting UK survey data sources for teaching political science: experiences from the classroom

11. Project rationale • UK academic community has access to a unique and expansive range of digital data resources • whilst individual datasets used extensively in academic research they are significantly under used in T&L programmes within HE, and rarely used in Further Education • UKDA has the potential to offer its resources to the T&L communities for developing more ‘packaged’ resources BUT needs the advice and input from instructors in the classroom on how to re-purpose and apply the content • widely recognised in the UK that the skills shortage of quantitative analysts is now critical - introducing concepts early on in post-16 education is one way to redress this shortage

12. Project objectives • produce teaching datasets from more complex socio-economic datasets • develop integrated web-based T&L resources that link together resource discovery tools, and data exploration and extraction tools (NESSTAR) with teaching materials that help address substantive issues for political science teaching • gain evaluation and feedback from piloting this re-purposed content - political science teachers and students • suggest models for improving the productivity of teachers by reducing the resources required to incorporate data related resources into T&L • promote increased and more effective use of a national data services for problem-based learning in the classroom

13. Course aspects covered • Substantive areas: national issues/controversies in politics • voting behaviour • crime and social order • race and immigration • Empirical orientations: research methods in politics • potential of survey data to answer questions • survey measurement; sampling • basic data management/basic data analysis • resource discovery skills • Essex HE course already combines these components • Local college course does not ‘use’ data; no hands on data manipulation; no aim to improve statistical literacy

14. Datasets selected • Plan to use British Election Studies • BUT FE syllabus dropped voter behaviour module SO using British Crime Survey and British Social Attitudes Survey • Create mini cut-down teaching datasets for BCS and BSA - publish in NESSTAR

15. Materials to be created • Web-based learners' and teachers' guides - tutorials and exercises • User guides to aid resource discovery, web-based data extraction and data exploration/visualisation of the teaching datsets via the NESSTAR software suite, suitable for student use • Enhancement of the teaching datasets and learning text/exercises through adding and linking other relevant information sources • Metadata of the learning objects for submission to the Repository • A fully documented ‘warts and all’ report on the processes used to re-purpose and pilot the learning materials

16. Metadata • standards changing rapidly through X4L programme • repository/delivery - JORUM and RELOAD projects • draft X4L Application Profile developed by the UK Metadata for Education Group (to identify common UK practice in the use of metadata in packaged e-learning content) • UK Common Metadata Framework (UKCMF) developed - an application profile of the IEEE Learning Object Metadata Standard (LOM) that has been optimised for use within the context of UK education • IEEE = US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers • UKCMF heavily influenced by the work of Canadian Core Learning Object Metadata Application Profile (CanCor)

17. JORUM • MIMAS/EDINA • provide a practical test bed investigation into a digital repository for learning materials • able to provide technical infrastructure for storage and retrieval of learning objects • functionality extends to disaggregation; re-purposing and re-aggregation of learning objects • investigate requirements for a long-term digital repository service

18. Future steps • Advocate collaboration with other e-learning projects • Recommend sharing of modules/components instead of re-investing the wheel • Share best stories/practice • Facilitate collaborative working via the IASSIST Education Committee